1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a scalpel of a blade-disposable type for use in surgical treatment, and more particularly to an improvement in a scalpel capable of readily and reliably replacing a disposable blade with another.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There has conventionally been used a scalpel or surgical knife comprising a handle 1 having a blade fitting head 2 with an engaging protrusion 3 and a disposable flat blade 5 having an engaging hole 6 which comes in detachable engagement with the aforementioned engaging protrusion 3 as illustrated in FIG. 1. The disposable blade 5 is generally provided on its one side with a blade edge 7. The disposable blades of various types different in blade shape are properly used according to the usage.
The conventional blade for use in a surgical operation is commonly made flat and has blade edge on its one side as specified above. Accordingly, the blade can be adapted to incise or cut straight the tissue of a living body. However, it is unsuitable to incise the tissue in a circle or curve and has a disadvantage that the tissue of the living body is apt to be incised too excess. For instance, a point-like affected part such as a small polyp will not be skillfully cut out with the flat blade as noted above. As a result, the incision performed by use of the flat blade requires much labor and is consequently intended to disfigure the cutis with a scar.
The inventor of this invention has previously proposed a scalpel for the purpose of remedying the shortcoming involved in using the conventional scalpel as mentioned above (Japanese Utility Model Application Public Disclosure SHO 64-46015(A)). The proposed scalpel comprises a handle 11 having a blade fitting head 12 with an engaging protrusion 13, and a disposable blade 15 which is curved laterally so as to assume a semicylindrical or semiconical configuration as illustrated in FIG. 2. The disposable blade 15 has an engaging hole 16 which receives and hooks detachably the engaging protrusion 13 on the blade fitting head 12. The scalpel employing the curved blade 15 entails an advantage that even a small polyp like a point can be skillfully cut out in surgical operation without inflicting an excessive incision on the cutis. Thus, according to the curved blade the scar being left on the cutis as the result of the surgical operation can be made as small as possible. Furthermore, the curved blade can be easily produced at a relatively low cost.
However, since the disposable blade for use in a scalpel is relatively small, the work of replacing the blade with another calls for meticulous care and often becomes onerous. This is because the disposable blade is curved and small so much as to make it difficult to hold the blade even with a forceps or the like. Specifically when attaching or detaching the disposable blade in the midst of the surgical operation, the blade becomes greasy with blood attached thereto.
Under the circumstances, a need has been felt for a scalpel capable of using various disposable blades different in shape according to the application, the condition of the affected parts and so on and easily and promptly replacing the blade with another even in the midst of the surgical operation.